First Impressions
by T1CKL3BUDDY
Summary: It's another day in war for Gadget, a new rookie fighting for the Resistance against the evil Doctor Eggman. But things get a lot more scary and difficult when Infinite comes along. It looks like Gadget's got some fighting to do.
1. First Impressions

_(Author's Note: This story is based off the setting of Sonic Forces, and will contain spoilers to the main story of that game. This story will have it's own twists to it, and won't follow the same route as the game. That being said, enjoy the story.)_

"Be sure to take good notes." Knuckles was briefing the resistance on a mission to find one of the Phantom Ruby prototypes. After a good couple hours of mapping and planning, a few members were sent off to search, and Gadget just so happened to be one of them. He grappled up to half of what used to be a building to look over the city. Eggman's robots completely trashed the place, and they'd clean it up, if it weren't for the fact that they were probably going to send some mercenaries to finish off any remaining survivors, and it wouldn't be smart to just hang out in the open waiting to die. After some searching, Gadget felt something nearby, some strange energy. He went to investigate. He found it! The Phantom Ruby prototype! A pal of his, a black rabbit with a mask over his mouth, and some spiked gloves came over to congratulate him.

"Nice work, Gadget. Knuckles will be pleased." Gadget grinned and nodded.

"Thanks, Grey! We should hurry though, before somebody-" Gadget's words were cut off as a black blur knocked him down, and took the Ruby.

"What the- Hey!" Grey was angry, and he pulled out his Nega-Wispon and grappled after. Gadget fumbled, trying to get up, and chased after both of them.

"Excuse me! Would you please give back the stone?" Gadget politely requested grappling by the flying entity. The entity looked Gadget straight in the eye, it was Infinite!

"Ah, Gadget. Good to see you chasing after what you think is yours. Gullible, it'll get you killed." Infinite stopped in his tracks, having Gadget, and Grey stop in theirs, causing them to drift in the dirt. Infinite quietly chuckled, holding the ruby.

"Well? Don't you want to please your team, child?" Gadget clenched his fist, and held his Burst-Wispon in hand.

"That's it. Give in to your rage, that's what will get you the precious stone." While Infinite was talking, Grey rushed and shot black holes at Infinite. Infinite had no problem escaping them, and he kicked Grey in the back, before rushing to his body, grabbing his foot and throwing him at Gadget. Gadget and Grey both get knocked back pretty far. Gadget fixes his glasses and looks up at Infinite. Infinite was at first quietly chuckling, but it broke into a louder laughter, as he used the power of the ruby to summon red powerful orbs, and shot them right at Gadget.

Before Gadget could take the hit and suffer hallucinations, Grey jumped in front of him, suddenly groaning. Grey shakes his head and grapples away.

"N-No, Grey, come back! I can't fight this guy on my own!" Infinite laughed.

"Your friends don't seem to care for you that much, child. Welcome to your end." Suddenly a Phantom Zavok appeared.

"Zavok. Take care of this pest, I'm going after the hopping rabbit." Infinite flew off, as Zavok picked Gadget up by his skull, easily overpowering him.

"Poor child. You are no match for the ruby's power. Oh well, time to paint that red fur with some more red." Zavok says, slowly crushing Gadget by his head. Gadget squirms and kicks Zavok, causing him to drop. Gadget quickly grabs his Wispon and starts burning Zavok with it.

"Graah! You ungrateful little-!" Zavok then punches Gadget so hard, he gets crushed into the ground.

"Ughh... N-No..." Gadget is almost out for the count. Zavok charges up one last finishing blow before he's suddenly hit in the back with an electric whip. It's a pink cat, with a Lightning Wispon, slicing Zavok's back.

"Damn! Why can't any of you rodents just leave!?" Zavok turns, about to punch the cat, before suddenly Gadget grapples Zavok by the shoulder and tugs hard enough to make him fall backwards. Gadget gets up while he can, and slowly backs up, limping slightly.

"Thanks for the save, Fuchsia." Gadget grins at Fuchsia, the cat smiles back.

"Well, you were about to become a mix of red jelly! Infinite is looking for the base, and he's really close. Too close. If we don't warn them, I'm most positive our entire team will be obliterated!" The Zavok clone slowly turns into Ruby particles, the fight over. Gadget fixes his glasses, which are slightly cracked.

"You're right, but if we go to base, we'll most definitely be found! How do we sneak in?"

"Well..." Fuchsia picks up Grey's Nega-Wispon.

"If we get enough Void wisps, we should use their power with the Wispon to teleport into the base!" Gadget nodded and went off without question. While Fuchsia went on her own path. Gadget looked in the Mystic Jungle, and found a couple. But they'd need 10 to teleport such a distance. Suddenly his ears perk, and he looks around, as he hears footsteps, fast ones. He charges his Burst Wispon, ready for a fight.

But then, Sonic hops out of a bush! Er, the little one does.

"Oh, phew.. It's just you... Hey Sonic! Have you happened to see any Violet Wisps?" Sonic gestures to where he came from, and smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks! Oh, and be careful, Infinite is out looking for the base, so don't give away any positions. I'm gonna use the wisps to teleport me, you, and Fuchsia into the base, okay?" Sonic nodded. Gadget then hopped into the bush, and found a ton of Violet wisps.

"Perfect!" He grabs them, then heads back to where Fuchsia was. She had a good amount, and Classic Sonic was with her.

"Nice! We'll put this in the Wispon, and we'll be good to go!" Fuchsia uses the wisps to absorb their power into the Wispon. Once it's charged, it's starts shaking a bit strangely, but the Nega-Wisps are a bit hyper for Hyper-Go-Ons, so it's not a big surprise. She charges the gadget, and the three get sucked into a black hole, which teleports them into the base. Amy welcomes them.

"Welcome back! But er, where's Grey?"

"..I thought he was with you... We saw Infinite out on the prowl, and we had to use Grey's Wispon to get here, so that we wouldn't reveal the base's location." Amy sighed in worry, and Vector chimed in.

"It's awful that we've had so many casualties lately... But one is better than all of us... Thank you, you three." As Fuchsia was about to say something, the door opened. It was Grey, he didn't have his mask, and he looked completely beaten.

"Grey! What happened, are you okay?" Amy said, worryingly.

"I-I.. Infinite... He has... The ruby... And he-" as Grey was about to finish, the entire wall behind him gets taken down, as he gets knocked down, Infinite is floating, with a ton of his hypnotizing cubes by his side.

"Ahahahaha! Oh, it's adorable... All of these ants tried so hard to hide in their hill... But it's not enough... Such a shame Sonic is busy at the Chemical Plant to bother saving his worthless friends! Hahahahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Infinite shot the cubes, and Gadget passed out in the battle. The last things he heard was the screaming and battling of his confused allies.

Darkness. Just darkness.

Gadget woke up in a completely destroyed base. None of his friends to be seen.

"G-Guys...? Oh sweet Mobius..." Gadget turned around to a world of destruction. The eggman robots were back attacking and destroying the city, and he recognized a few faces being tormented by Chaos, Metal Sonic, and others. He stumbled, falling on one knee, and fixing his cracked glasses.

"I-I can't believe it... Eggman's gonna wipe out the Resistance... This... This can't be it though... There has to be hope..." He picked up a Cube Hammer, and stumbled out into the battlefield. He grappled up to a building to get a better glance. There's Knuckles! Oh no, he's surrounded! Gadget hops down, and turns the robots into cubes.

"Thanks, rookie. You really saved my bacon. Glad to see you're alive. Look, right now, it's utter chaos. If you want to find Infinite, he's in Station Square, but I know how close you are to Fuchsia, and she's fighting Chaos a few blocks down. Hurry, there's not much time!" Gadget nodded, and grappled from building to building, and he spots Fuchsia. Right as he's about to jump down, a Death Egg Robot lasers the building, and has it collapse. He quickly climbs up the side, and grapples off before it's destroyed. He slams the hammer down on Chaos, and turns him into a puddle.

"Gadget! Oh, I'm glad you didn't get killed by Infinite back there..." The two hug, and right as Gadget is about to return the happy thoughts, they both get punched by Chaos, and knocks them back. Gadget holds his ground, and swings the Wispon at Chaos, eventually getting it grabbed out of his hands, and then getting socked right in the face. He falls on one knee, and Chaos is about to deliver the finishing blow, before Fuchsia, uses the Hover Wispon to blast him away, turning him into little water drops.

"Seems like I'm the one always saving your clumsy butt, Gadget!" Fuchsia giggles at him.

"Yeah, well, I mean who else is gonna look cool while getting his butt whooped?" They both share a laugh, before Infinite shoots a laser in between them.

"Isn't that adorable... Two rats sharing their last moments with whatever happiness they have left. Now, I'd love to watch you two sit in joy, but I suppose I'm just a buzzkill, aren't I?" Gadget looks gruff as he picks up his Cube Wispon.

"Hmph, and you will be too." Infinite says, before charging straight at them, picking Gadget up and flying high in the air. Gadget reacts, and and punches him, but all it does is just bruise his hand against Infinite's helmet. They're up fifty feet now, and Infinite grabs Gadget's wrist, and rips out the grappling hook, so he can't save himself.

"Let's see how good your friends are at playing catch." Infinite drops Gadget, and he suddenly starts squirming and freaking out. Fuchsia looks up as Gadget falls, she grapples up to a building, and jumps off of it, Gadget in her reach, before Metal Sonic interrupts, and smacks Fuchsia out of the way, Gadget falling faster, and faster before-!

Tails catches him in the nick of time and sets him down.

"Close one there, Gadget! Can't have any more casualties than what we already have..."

"Thanks, Tails! But-Wait, behind you!"

"Huh?" Tails turns around, and Infinite stabs Tails in the gut with a paralyzing claw, Tails suddenly going limp. Infinite slams his lbody hard on the ground.

"This is what happens, kid! You bring your friends into this mess, and I take care of them. I take care of them for good. Is this what you're afraid of?" Infinite then summons the cubes and shoots them directly into Gadget. He falls on his knees, and when he looks up, Infinite's cubes were spiked sharp, and the robots looked more menacing, and Metal Sonic had a red tint to him.

"N-No... Get away!" Gadget crawled back from the terrifying robots. They picked him up by the limbs, and Infinite floated closer.

"Welcome to your end, kid. Or in other words, my special paradise.." Infinite grabs Gadget by the neck, slowly choking him, before suddenly he's saved by Classic Sonic, and his vision goes back to normal, the robots not there anymore, he gets up and off his knees, and slams the hammer across Infinite's face.

"Arrgh! Heheheh, your friends don't matter now..." Infinite's about to dose Gadget with more cubes, before Classic Sonic goes into a spin dash, and launches right into Infinite's shoulder, spiking him and doing some damage. Gadget then slams the ground with the hammer, slowing Infinite down with the blue cubes.

"Hmph! This game is over!" Infinite kicks Gadget back hard enough to make him fall on his back. He then grabs Sonic by a choke hold, making him squirm, and flail.

"Aah, the little blue savior... Your saving won't last." Tails was unparalyzed, but he was too late. By the time Tails got up, Infinite threw Sonic on the ground hard, and stomped on him, Sonic going limp. Classic Sonic was dead.

"NO!" Gadget and Tails both screamed.

"Gadget... Consider this your greatest mistake... Unless history repeats itself." Infinite charged at Gadget and paralyzed him, and then punched him hard enough to knock him out for good.

The last things Gadget saw before passing out was Sonic's body, and Tails and Fuchsia being held captive by Metal Sonic and Chaos.

Operation Rebellion: Critical Mission Failure

400+ KIAs, 50+ MIAs, 250+ WIAs

Tomorrow is another day.


	2. Unneeded Casualties

Sonic was in the Chemical Plant, looking for Doctor Eggman's computer in one of his bases. He found the computer, and accessed the files he needed, before getting an SOS call from Amy.

"Sonic! Infinite and his army are here! They destroyed home base, and are killing our team! You need to hurry here, NOW!"

"Don't worry Amy! I'm on my way, be there as quick as I can!" Sonic then blasted off into a run, and was about to get out of the Chemical Plant, before a foe blocks his path.

It's Shadow. His eyes are full of fakeness. And that's not an insult.

"Shadow! Is it really you?" Shadow didn't say a word, but just shot a Chaos Spear at Sonic. Sonic dodged it.

"Yeah, I figured as much." Sonic then dashed towards Shadow and threw a few quick punches. Left, right, left, kick. Shadow took a few hits, but grabbed Sonic's foot as Sonic attempted to kick him, then threw him off the platform, and walked away, assuming Sonic's death. However, Sonic grabbed the edge before he fell, and when Shadow started walking away, he got up, he ran, and slid under his feet, making Shadow get launched a bit upwards, and then Sonic did a powerful kick while Shadow was in the air, and launched him off. Sonic could see Shadow turn into Ruby pixels as he fell.

"Now enough of that. The resistance needs my help!" Sonic then ran to the city to see utter destruction. Right as he entered the city, he witnessed three robots shooting at a single soldier, with a cube hammer. As the soldier tried to swing, a robot knocked the hammer out of his hands, and pushed him to the ground. The three aimed their guns at him, ready to shoot, before Sonic destroyed them with homing attacks.

"S-Sonic! Thanks! The city needs you!"

"You need to get out of here, find a base in Green Hill, I'll take care of this!" Sonic then ran off, and looked up at a Death Egg Robot. It looked down, and was about to step on Sonic. Luckily he rolled at the last second before it crushed him. He then saw Infinite in the town square, who had just thrown Gadget to his imminent doom. He was about to go and save him, but then got grabbed by Chaos, who threw him into a building, breaking him through the wall. Sonic groaned in the rubble.

"Ugh... G-Gadget! Out of the way... Chaos...!" He slowly got up, and boosted at supersonic speeds towards Chaos, turning him into rain. As Sonic was about to turn the corner to see if Gadget was okay, 14 robots, had their guns pointed at him, and they shot. Sonic took a few hits, but then jumped back around the corner, picking up a couple scattered rings.

The robots slowly stepped closer, and were about to finish off Sonic, before they suddenly turned blue. Silver jumped in and smashed them all against a building, destroying them.

"You okay, Sonic?"

"Silver! Thanks for the save, but Gadget and the others need my help!" Right as that's said, buzz bombers fly in, and shoot at both of them. Sonic runs up a building, and backflips off of it, kicking one in the face, and silver shoots a couple psychic knives. Sonic runs past the corner, but he's too late. His eyes widen as he sees Gadget and Classic Sonic's bodies, and Tails and Fuchsia being dragged away by mechs.

"SONIC!" Tails screamed kicking. Sonic rushed over, but then got dosed with cubes, making him see spikes, and Silver looked confused as well. Sonic dodged a bunch of spike walls, and lasers being shot at him in the nightmare, and when he came too, Infinite was in front of him.

"Welcome to the party, hedgehog. A bit late, but I suppose it's better than nothing." Sonic tried to run past him, but Infinite could keep up with his speed, and stopped him, and only gave him the choice to watch his friends get dragged away.

"Gadget... What did you do to Gadget and the other Sonic?!"

"No worries... Gadget is merely temporarily paralyzed, and knocked out. The tic-tac however... He didn't suffer for long, if it makes you feel better." Sonic clenched his fists, and swung at him, and Infinite dodged his every move, and kicked him into a building, cracking his back pretty hard. He groaned in pain, as he fell on his side.

"This is it for the resistance. Everything you worked up for, and everything you fought for... Was it worth it?" Sonic tried to get up, but couldn't. Infinite grabbed him by the neck, and Sonic was barely moving.

"You fought well, hedgehog. I admire your strength and confidence. But it wasn't enough. Goodbye." Infinite started choking him, and that's when Sonic kicked Infinite in the gut, causing him to drop Sonic, then he did a spin kick, and knocked Infinite on the ground. He dashed to his friends who were about to be put in capsules, and kicks down a robot, and boosts through the rest. Tails, Fuchsia, other resistance members, and the bodies of Gadget and Classic Sonic were dropped and freed.

"Thank you, Sonic... But... We lost the other Sonic..." Tails said, sadness in his voice.

"And Gadget..." Fuchsia started, but never finished.

"Don't worry Fuchsia, Gadget will wake up soon... But... Infinite was just... so brutal..."

"He's a monster, Tails... We have to stop him."

"Hmhmhmhm... You? Stop me? How absurd." Infinite said, floating over. Fuchsia slowly picked up a laser pistol, and aimed it at Infinite.

"You're gonna wish you never came to this town!" Fuchsia exclaimed, shooting at Infinite. He dodged without issue, and shot a laser beam from his hand, driving it slowly across the ground near her, before turning the laser on the unconscious Gadget.

"And you're gonna wish you died." Infinite said about to execute Gadget, before Tails threw ring bombs at him, doing a bit of damage.

"Agh! Why you little..." Infinite turned and charged at Tails, and gutting him with the hallucination claw, Tails starting to see nightmarish things, and freaks out.

"Tails!" Sonic said, rushing over to Infinite, and kicking him in the back of the head, before trying to snap Tails out of it.

"Fool." Infinite just stabbed Sonic with the same claw having him see things as well. He saw robots with spike shooters, and they shot at him. He dodged, but got hit with one, causing him to fall one knee, and snapping out of it, and looking up to Infinite standing over him, charging his laser beam right at his head.

"Die for me, would you?"


	3. Speed Break

This was it. Sonic's final moments. Infinite's deadly laser beam were about to go right through Sonic's skull, and he was too weak to stop him.

"Die for me, would you?" Infinite's laser shot right through Sonic, killing him instantly. Tails freaked out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Tails POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tails had just witnessed Sonic's death, again. But what was it he was really seeing? Tails suddenly saw everything change, and everything go dark. Before Sonic's death looped over and over in his head. And then Infinite came along.

"Poor little fox. Is your mind playing games with you? Maybe Sonic isn't dead like you thought... But I'll leave you to think... Which one?" Tails suddenly saw Speedy, the Battle Kukku throwing bombs at him in the Emerald Hills of Westside Island

"Wh-What the- We drove off your crew years ago!" Tails got hit with a bomb and knocked away. Then he found himself in Metal City, and Wave walked up to him, dragging her wrench.

"Where's your faulty hardware, shorty? Why'd you let Sonic lose? Why'd you let Sonic _die?_ "

"I-I... I-I didn't..." Tails was about to break down in tears, and Wave smacked him with the wrench, turning him back in the destroyed city, but it was paused, like a movie, and Infinite walked closer.

"Is this what you're afraid of? Afraid of your best friend dying because you couldn't do anything? Afraid of being lost? Afraid of being _weak_?"

"I-I... I'm not weak..." Tails was crying.

"You couldn't save either Sonic. Your best friend died twice, and you did nothing about it. You're _weak_."

"I-I... I am not weak..."

"Fine. Prove it. I'll take you back to before Sonic's death. Prove to me you're not weak." Tails is suddenly back at the city, and Infinite is about to execute Sonic with the laser. Tails clenches his fist and throws a dummy ring bomb straight at Infinite. Sonic then did a sweep kick, and punched Infinite in the gut. Infinite was on his knees, and put his hands up.

"Okay, okay... You got me..." Fuchsia got closer about to cuff Infinite before the Phantom Ruby triggers, and spawns one of the giant Death Egg Robots right above them, about to crush them.

"Get out of the way! Everyone move, FAST!" Sonic said, and dashed out, picking up Classic Sonic's body with him. Fuchsia carried Gadget, and some other resistance members took the animals. But Tails stood on his knees, filled with tears. Infinite stood in front of him, laughing.

"I'm... Not... Weak..." Sonic took note of Tails absence and saw him about to get crushed. He ran quickly, grabbing Tails, and jumping out of the way just before the robot's foot crushed them both. Infinite was left to get crushed. Sonic looked at Tails' pale dead eyes. Tails just mumbled the words "I am not weak" over and over.

"Tails...? Buddy, are you okay..?" Sonic said in concern, before Fuchsia interrupted.

"Guys, we can deal with this later, that giant robot is about laser us all!"

"You're right. Fuchsia, you're in command of the soldiers here, I've gotta escort Tails and the animals out of here and back to Green Hill!" Tails suddenly jerked from Sonic's grip.

"NO! I'm not weak!" Sonic's eyes widened.

"Tails.. I know you aren't weak.. You saved Gadget's life! But this material isn't for you, me and the soldiers can handle the huge robots, okay?" Tails sighed, and nodded. The resistance members, including Fuchsia grappled up and swung around the robot.

"Fight, my friends! Destroy the beast!" Said one of the resistance members. The giant Death Egg Robot swung it's giant arms, flinging some members off. A few got up to it's eye, and one member used a Lightning Wispon to slice it's eye, right then and there it laser blasted all of them. Sonic picked up Tails, and the animals, and zoomed off to Green Hill.

~~~~~~~~Gadget's POV~~~~~~

Gadget once again woke up in a war zone, his head aching. He looked at some of his fellow soldiers corpses, either impaled, crushed, or lasered. His grappling hook was shattered, and his glasses were cracked. He witnessed Fuchsia get thrown, and and slammed by one of the robots that swung her off from swinging. She got up, and noticed Gadget's awakening.

"Gadget! This isn't a good time for you to wake up and die, Sonic and Tails are heading to a base in Green Hill, reload your gear, and come back, quick!" Gadget zoned out for a second, still baffled at what happened. He got his hide kicked by Infinite badly, and now everyone he once knew is disappearing one by one.

"Gadget! Are you even listening to me?!" Gadget snapped out of it.

"Uh-Yeah! I'll be back as soon as I can!" He picked up a laser pistol and was about to run off, before she grabbed his hand.

"Please, come back safe..." Gadget nodded, and ran off. He avoided any chaos surrounding him, and shot any robots in his path. He made it to the base in Green Hill. When he looked back, he saw fire and flames shooting up, the Death Egg robots wreaking havoc.

Gadget went through the secret entrance, and greeted Sonic and Tails, and other Resistance members.

"Gadget! Good to see you not robot food. There's a resting bay in the-" Sonic was interrupted by Gadget.

"No! I'm reloading my supplies, I've gotta go back out and help recover the city!" He said, unloading his broken grappling hook, and reloading a new one. Sonic nodded.

"I appreciate your heroism, partner. I'll catch up with you in a bit." Sonic said. Gadget handed the laser blaster to a resistance member, and picked up a Hover Wispon, and headed out the door. He grappled fast, feeling the breeze in his ears. He then got back into the boundaries of the ruined city, and blasted packs of robots. He then caught Metal Sonic assaulting Fuchsia.

"Let go of me, you undersized copy!" Metal Sonic got angry at that, and clawed her in the face, causing her to turn 180 degrees, and he kicked her back, and grabbed her by the head, about to slam it back into the ground. Gadget acted quickly, blasting Metal Sonic off. He got mad, and went into his spinning torpedo form, and blasted at Sonic speeds towards both of them, he cartwheeled out of the way while Fuchsia jumped out of the way, and Metal Sonic ran into a Death Egg Robot, destroying both of them. Fuchsia got up, smiling at Gadget.

"Thanks for the save... I guess now I owe you-"

"No you don't! I have to save you another 20 times!" They both laughed, but then realized the giant robot was about to fall on both of them. Gadget grabs Fuchsia, and grapples out of the way. They hang on the edge of a trashed building.

"Where's Infinite? I need payback for my face!" Gadget said.

"You can't go find him! He'll kill you without a second thought! I'm surprised he didn't kill you when you got paralyzed! He almost killed Sonic! Er, our Sonic... It's too late for the little one... Poor guy..."

"We're losing a lot of people, Fuchsia, and I don't want to lose you too. Go find Tails at the base at Green Hill, you're not fit for battle after almost getting thrashed by Metal Sonic!" Fuchsia still shook her head.

"No. If you're going down on Infinite's hands, then so will I. We fight together, we die together, you hear me, Gadget?" Gadget grinned.

"Now I remember why we became friends. Your fierceness never dies!" They fist bump, and then grapple off to find Infinite.

They want this war to end.


	4. Fun is Infinite

~~~~~Fuchsia's POV~~~~~

The war just doesn't want to stop. Gadget and Fuchsia took down a couple Death Egg Robots, but it's not enough. They're being mass-produced. Hope is losing every second.

"Agh.. This... Why can't they just stay down...?" Gadget mumbled, almost beaten. Fuchsia got knocked back by a Shadow clone.

"G-Gadget... We might not make it through... Citizens are dying... Our resistance is losing..."

Shadow was about to execute them, before the blue blur, kicked him out of the way.

"You two alright? Look, this city is lost. Gather up any survivors, we're escaping! Knuckles and the resistance are already leaving, I'm gonna join you two to find anyone left, and we're gonna leave this wasteland!" They both nodded, and ran to find them. They got a couple of survivors to go but then Fuchsia found a group, supposedly siblings. She stopped dead in her tracks at the horrific sight.

"N-No! Please, give back my brother!" A citizen said. Robots were dragging away another, and puts him into a capsule. Then they gun down the sister, killing her. Fuchsia's eyes widened at her failure, and quickly black hole's the robots. Then she steps on the button to free the animals, and the brother. He mourns over his dead sister.

"I-I'm sorry sir.. But we're gonna have to go, now.. The city is lost..." He looks at her with broken eyes.

"P-Please... Just leave me..."

"I'm sorry sir, but you have to move now-" She was interrupted when she got knocked back by a Shadow replica. The guy's eyes widened, but Shadow silenced him with a fatal kick to face, breaking his neck. Fuchsia shot Shadow with the Void wispon, erasing him. She then felt guilt for letting these two die. Gadget found her, and was about to say something, before looking at the two dead siblings.

"At... At least they're together again..." Gadget sunk, but shook his head.

"We gotta go, Sonic got the others to get out of here. We should too." Fuchsia nodded, and ran by his side. She took one last look back at the city, before shaking her head and running back to the hidden base. Rouge greeted them.

"Welcome. I'm glad you could save these people, imagine what it'd be like if their families were lost before their eyes." Fuchsia shuddered. She knew she did nothing to stop the brutal murder of two siblings. Rouge slightly tilted her head.

"Fuchsia, you feeling okay?" She snapped out of it.

"Yeah.. I-I'm okay... I'm just thinking of... All those lost souls that couldn't get out..." Rouge frowned, then went over to plant her hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay... You did what you could..." Fuchsia shrugged.

"I need to talk to Gadget in private for a second.." Rouge nodded, then let them step outside.

"Fuchsia, is this about those dead folk you found..?"

"I didn't find them, Gadget... I-I watched them just get slaughtered... They were brother and sister... I did nothing to stop their deaths.." Gadget frowned.

"You were stuck in the moment, I get it... It isn't your fault, Fuchsia..." She nodded, and hugged him. They walked back in, and Knuckles was briefing the team.

"We need to strike back. We can't sit here, and wait to be attacked again. Eggman has a base in Metropolis. We go in fast, and hard, and don't look back! I call it Operation Big Wave!" Knuckles was briefing, and Fuchsia was only half-listening. She knew Gadget would just summarize it ten times on the way there anyways. A citizen interrupted Knuckles.

"What if it doesn't work? What if we lose everybody, and the mission is a huge failure?"

"Knuckles is the commander, I'm sure he thought this through!"

Fuchsia then saw everyone in the resistance readying up. She grabbed an Asteroid wispon, while Gadget had his trusty Burst wispon. They nodded, then grappled with what's left of the crew. Sonic, Knuckles, and other crew ran on the ground. They got to Metropolis, and Fuchsia and Gadget grappled to hide behind some boxes, while Sonic and Knuckles had an army behind them.

"Charge!" The resistance ran to fight, and there was laserfire between the Resistance, and the Eggman Empire. Gadget and Fuchsia charged with them. Gadget burned up some bots, and Fuchsia had the Asteroid Clones to fight with her. Sonic blurred and destroyed a pack of robots in a second. Fuchsia swooned. Gadget just rolled his eyes.

"We got this guys, keep going!" Everything was going well, and then Infinite showed up.

"Hmph, is this supposed to be a joke? Pathetic." He summoned his ruby illusions, and shot a ton of cubes into the heart of the resistance. They all started to freak out, and get hurt.

"Come on, everybody, don't fall for his tricks! We can do this!" Knuckles jumped up and punched Infinite straight in the face. All he did was laugh.

"Hilarious joke, knucklehead." Infinite then grabbed his fist, and socked Knuckles right in the face, before throwing him at the crowd of hallucinating people, doing some damage.

"Fuchsia, don't give in! Fight!" Gadget said, burning Infinite a bit. She nodded, and sent some clones to fight. It did a bit of damage, but not enough, as Infinite did a shockwave attack, knocking people back. Gadget held his head, groaning, but he didn't get hurt or anything. He kept his hopes up, which defended him from the hallucinations. Fuchsia swooned more than she did for Sonic. Gadget was just so cool. Gadget then grappled up to Infinite like an idiot. He did a wire attack, but Infinite just grabbed the wire, and swung it, and threw it high in the air. Before Gadget could react, Infinite had him in a choke hold.

"What does it take for you to understand that you're weak, and that I'm unstoppable? What do I have to do, kill more of your friends?"

"My friends won't die anymore... They've got spirit... They've got the feelings that you don't! That's what's going to help us win!" Gadget punched Infinite, and back flipped off, burning him a bit with the wispon.

"Argh! Arrogant roach! You will die, and it won't be painless!" Fuchsia looked up as Gadget landed, and sent enough clones to stun Infinite in his tracks.

"Now! Now's the time to fire!" Fuchsia ordered, the resistance shooting at Infinite. Eggman then got on the speakerphone.

"Attention, Eggman Empire! The Resistance is trying to invade, and assault! Destroy them all! Show no mercy!"

"Enough of this!" Infinite said, blasting everyone with a shockwave again. Fuchsia started to see things and lose hope. She saw the two people she witnessed die, and it looped in her head. Infinite then cloned himself in her mind, and started beating her up all at once. That's when she thought she was going to die.

Then she saw Gadget trying to help.

"Fuchsia! Snap out of it! Don't lose hope, you can do it!" That's when they disappeared. And she saw Gadget's hand. She took it, and realized they were on a different part of the battlefield. She must've been hallucinating for a while. Infinite's fighting Sonic, buying them time. They were on a high building, fighting robots. When Gadget wasn't paying attention he got shot, and fell off the building, but grabbed the ledge before he could fall.

"Gadget!" She grabbed a laser blaster, and shot at them, before grabbing Gadget's hand.

"Don't worry, I got you!"

~~~~~Sonic's POV~~~~~

Sonic just got knocked back by Infinite.

"Hahahahaha... Just give up, Sonic... There's no reason to fight now... Look at your Resistance..." He grabbed his head, making him look at the destruction, before getting a radio message from Amy.

"80% of our forces have been wiped out! And we've lost contact with the rest!" Then Vector replied with

"One flip of the Phantom Ruby switch, and everything falls apart on us!" Knuckles finishes with

"Sonic, you still there? Eggman says Infinite has his special weapon ready! Be sure to-" The radio cuts out, and turns to static, Sonic has lost connection, and Infinite chuckles maniacally.

"The moron's not wrong for once. This time, there's no running away." Infinite throws Sonic on the ground roughly, before charging up the Phantom Ruby.

"This is goodbye." Infinite finished charging, and blasted a huge forcefield that was pure ruby delusions. Sonic was taken in the blast, and he was engulfed with hallucinations.

It was all just a racetrack for him. He had his hopes up still, and ran through the hallucinations that were littered with spikes, and deathtraps. He then stopped dead in his tracks as he saw... Tails? But he didn't come along for this mission...

"Tails? Buddy are you... What are you doing here?" Tails just looked back with pale dead eyes.

"T...Tails...?" Infinite then broke from Tails, laughing, and knocking Sonic back. Sonic looked angry, and spin dashed and jumped into Infinite, punching and fighting. Infinite knocked him down.

"Give up, Sonic. There's no hope for you now. As long as you're under the Phantom Ruby's control, there is no savior." Suddenly a grapple hook grabbed Infinite's arm, and Gadget slingshotted himself into Infinite, doing some damage. Then Sonic broke from his illusion. He gave a thumbs up at Gadget, and then homed in and kicked Infinite right in the face.

"Enough of this! You disgusting rats will perish, even if it takes for me to take the entire planet, just to kill you!"


	5. Time to Step It Up

Espio was chasing after Chaos, who had just knocked out Charmy, and was floating away. Espio threw ninja stars at him, and ended grappling to him, the grapple going right through his watery body, before Espio kicked him down, turning him into Ruby Particles. Espio then got on his radio.

"Espio here. I took down Chaos. Vector, how's Charmy doing?"

"Things aren't looking good, Espio! We're surrounded and-" The transmission turned to static. And then it came back with Infinite's voice.

"Well... Things aren't looking too good for your team, 'Master of Camouflage'..." Infinite said from the radio.

"...You... What did you do to Vector and-" Infinite then was in front of Espio as quick as light.

"You're about to find out... Hahahahaha..."

Sonic and Gadget were fighting through Eggman's army, while Fuchsia stayed with their squad and commanded them strategically. Sonic then got an SOS call from Vector.

"Sonic! Come back by Sector B quick! We can't seem to find Espio!"

"I'm on my way!" Sonic then fist bumped Gadget, and ran off. He found Vector and Charmy.

"Hey guys.. Are you alright?" Sonic said.

"We're fine... Charmy got a bit busted up by Chaos, but Espio went after him. He hasn't come back since, he's never taken this long!"

"Wasn't a transmission from him cut off? And I saw Infinite fly past me.. We can't focus on the side-problems, Vector! Eggman's at the top of the tower my squad was climbing, we'll find him, take him down, then we can find Espio!" Vector nodded.

"Be safe, Sonic!" Sonic nodded, and ran off to Gadget again. On his way bombs were being dropped from Eggman ships, causing Sonic to lose balance and fall. Motobugs then rushed from Pod Droppers, and assaulted Sonic. He quickly got up, kicking one into another, and then doing a sweep kick, knocking back the ones surrounding him, then he dashes off, as they manage to keep up with his speed and chase after him. He knocks into one, causing it to rear off the road, and explode. He then met Gadget, who was waiting for Sonic.

"GADGET! BURST!" Gadget's eyes widened, but he readied his Wispon, as he crouched down, Sonic did a side flip over him, and Gadget burned the remaining Motobugs. Sonic fist bumped Gadget.

"Sweet teamwork, partner!"

"Thanks, Sonic! Our squad is going up, we should too. Eggman should be waiting up there." Sonic, Gadget, and Fuchsia and the rest of their squad went up the building, but Eggman had already left.

"Shoot! We didn't make it!" Sonic said. But then Infinite slowly floated down.

"Well... How convenient... This whole squad just came here to die... Well, lucky for you... I have a new toy..."

"Hmph! Whatever it is, I'm sure we can handle it!" Said a resistance member, holding a laser blaster.

"Very well. I bring you..." Suddenly a puff of smoke comes up below Infinite. No... It can't be...

" _Espio..._ " Espio had Ruby particles all around him, and his left eye was red like Infinite's.

"Kill them..." Espio then had the Phantom Ruby prototype that Infinite took from Gadget. He used it to shoot Ruby particles at the group. The squad could barely fight back, seeing as how Espio was a close comrade, and excellent fighter, this wasn't a good mix. Espio used his grapple hook to stab and attack people, and threw ninja stars as well. Sonic eventually ran and attacked. He went to punch Espio, but he dodged without issue.

"Espio! Snap out of it, whatever Infinite's doing, it isn't good, he's manipulating you!" Espio didn't acknowledge a thing Sonic just said, because he kept throwing shurikens at him. Sonic dodged a few easily, and while Sonic was distracting him, a resistance member, a young looking dog, shot him with a blaster. Espio looked him in the eye, and threw three shurikens at the dog, the dog suddenly having worry in his eyes, he gets hit with all three of them, and falls off the building. Sonic runs off without a second thought, and jumps off the building to try and catch him. Heroic, but stupid, because Sonic doesn't have a grappling hook. Sonic catches the dog, but realizes that they're now both falling to their imminent doom.

"Sonic!" Gadget and Fuchsia both scream. Gadget was about to go save him, before Espio throws a shuriken into his shoe, making him trip. Fuchsia then grapples towards Espio, and kicks him in the face, before jumping off of him and grappling to the falling two. She grabs Sonic's hand, and grapples back up, before Infinite is there in a flash, and kicks her through a building window, laughing. Sonic and the resistance member were falling still, before Sonic got caught...

By Charmy. He caught his hand, and flew them back up, a little tired after that.

"Don't worry, Sonic! I got you!"

"Thanks Charmy!"

"Yeah, not a prob-" Charmy was cut off by the sight of Espio hurting innocent people. He was shocked, he thought Espio was taking care of Chaos, not this.

"E-Espio...? What are you-" Espio stopped and looked at Charmy. Charmy started shaking in fear, as Espio looked at him with the evil Infinite eye, and hesitates, but shot ruby particles straight into Charmy, having him fall back, afraid.

"No!" Sonic said, dashing towards Espio. He kicked and fought, and Espio dodged all of them without issue, he then karate chopped Sonic in all the right places to paralyze him for a few seconds. Then Vector got on the radio.

"Has anyone found Espio? Charmy, Sonic? Can anyone respond?!" Espio's strange evil eye starts to flicker, and disappear, having him fall on one knee, he looks at the Ruby prototype, before smashing it on the ground. Infinite looked confused.

"What...? How did you- What did you do?" Espio looked back, and threw shurikens at Infinite, and hit him. He grunted and fell.

"Argh, dammit! Heheh... I guess you did have a stronger mind than I thought, Espio... But it's not enough!" Infinite then rushed to behind Espio, and managed to kick him off. Espio grappled the edge of the building, and launched himself back into Infinite.

"Argh! Why won't you just die, already?!" Infinite grabbed Espio's foot, and threw him into the ground, but Charmy rushed and stung him before he could finish him off. Sonic and Gadget then double boost into Infinite, launching him off the building.

"Phew... Good going, everyone!" Sonic said to the majority of the resistance. Gadget was smiling too, but then he realized...

"Where's Fuchsia?!" Gadget said, before jumping down and grappling into the building she crashed in. She was on the floor, and the glass on the other side of the building had a huge crack in it, making the assumption that she crashed into that as well, but luckily not through it. There was a bunch of broken glass and robot parts on the floor as well.

"Fuchsia...?" Gadget said, slowly crunching through the glass. He shook her, and she mumbled.

"Urghh... Gadget...? Wh...What happened...?" Fuchsia said, as Gadget helped her up.

"Y-You're gonna be okay! You got beaten by Infinite." Fuchsia grunted as she got up.

"Argh! M-My back hurts... Gadget, I don't know if I can keep fighting..." Her eyes widened as Egg Pawns stomped up the steps, and turned around, pointing and aiming their guns at the two. There were too many of them for them to fight alone. He threw flames at some, before grabbing her hand and grappling back up the to the top. As they landed, Fuchsia grunted and tripped. The Egg Pawns, and Buzz Bombers were up here too, shooting and fighting Sonic, and the rest of the resistance.

"This is Eagle squad! We can't hold out much more, our ship is taking heavy damage-AAAUGHH-" Eagle Squad's radio cut out as a Resistance airship above slowly crashed down.

"This is Knuckles! Our Big Wave has washed out... Everybody retreat, and we'll regroup at home base!" Sonic looked at Gadget and Fuchsia, and pointed back to their base with his thumb, and dashed off, while Espio and Charmy followed. Gadget wrapped Fuchsia's arms around his neck and was ready to grapple back, before Infinite showed up.

"Ahaha... I don't think so... I'm not quite finished with you, Gadget..." Gadget furrowed his eyebrows, charging his Wispon. Infinite charged at him, and Gadget barely dodged, flaming him, and then grappling toward him. The grapple attach did some damage to Infinite, but he then grabbed Gadget by a chokehold when he got closer, and threw him, scattering Fuchsia and Gadget apart. Fuchsia groaned as she hit the ground, and Gadget did a sideflip as he hit the ground, and his wispon fell off the building. He just barely crawled closer to Fuchsia, before Infinite grabbed her by the fur on her head. She groaned in pain, and Infinite laughed.

"Ahahahaha! Oh, Gadget, were you looking for your poor kitty, here? It'd be a shame if someone just..."

"G...G-Gadget-" Fuchsia mumbled before-

Infinite slammed her head on the ground, then punched the side of her skull hard enough, killing her.

"Whoops..." Gadget's eyes widened. His best friend, and possibly love of his life just got crushed and killed in front of him, and Infinite was just laughing. This wasn't the first time Infinite would kill his friends right in front of him, but it felt so much worse now. Gadget clenched his fists, and rushed toward him, filled with anger, he fought and punched Infinite more than he's ever fought anything. Infinite took the hits, but laughed it off like it was nothing. He floated upwards, staring down at him, before launching back into Gadget, crushing him into the floor.

"Oh well... You've put up a fight for a long while, Gadget... But it's safe to say... You're done for..." Gadget's eyes drifted to a close, and Infinite dashed off, assuming his death.

 _Operation Big Wave: Critical Mission Failure_

 _200+ WIAs, 150+ MIAs, 800+ KIAs_

 _. . ._


	6. Promised Revenge

"ERROR: MALFUNCTION. COPIED CODE: IDENTIFIED ENEMY. PAYBACK INEVITABLE."

Omega has just awakened. He had processed the critical error. He remembers now, the masked enemy had struck him down without issue. And then the fox fixed him. But where to? The city he had reinitialized in is completely wrecked. It must be... The doctor's doing! Right, he has to destroy him at all costs, and get payback at the masked man. Scans and reports identify him as Infinite. Now, we must find Rouge, and Shadow, and stop this apocalypse from growing stronger.

Sonic and the Resistance made it to the secret base, a little beat up.

"Everyone okay?" Knuckles said. A few members looked at each other and realized they were missing a couple people.

"Where's Gadget and Fuchsia?" Tails asked. Sonic looked around.

"We can't go searching for them now, we have to stay here, and heal up. It was a tough battle out there." Knuckles said. Amy nodded.

"Knuckles is right, Sonic, we can't risk losing you too." Sonic shook his head, and leaned against the wall, and Tails looked concerned.

"I... I can go look for him! I didn't join you guys in the Operation, I can go sneak around and find Gadget and Fuchsia!" Tails said. Knuckles thought, but then nodded.

"Okay, but be careful out there, Tails! We can't send any backup, so if you get in a jam, you're on your own. Be back soon." Tails nodded, and headed out. He flew to Metropolis, and saw Infinite go to the core of the Eggman Empire Fortress. He shivered, and looked around. Then he found Gadget crushed into a building, and Fuchsia next to him. He flew over, but then gasped and covered his mouth.

"O-Oh no! Gadget, Fuchsia, what happened?!" Gadget shook his head and groaned.

"T...Tails...?" Tails ran over, and helped him up, but Fuchsia wasn't moving. She took a powerful Ruby punch to her skull, and didn't live. Gadget got up, but his eyes widened at the sight of Fuchsia.

"What... What the hell happened?!" Gadget said. Tails was horrified. How could Infinite do this?

"G-Gadget... We have to go... Fuchsia's... She didn't make it..." Gadget was shaking, and Tails tried to comfort him. Gadget shook him off, and grappled back to home base. Tails flew after him. Gadget entered the door, sadness and anger covering his face. Sonic perked up and walked over.

"Whoa, partner, what happened? Where's Fuchsia..?" Tails came up behind him, and closed the entrance. Behind Gadget's back, Tails traced his thumb over his neck, telling Sonic that Fuchsia didn't survive Infinite's assault. Sonic put a hand on Gadget's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Gadget. We'll make him pay." The base had a moment of silence for Fuchsia.

"Rouge, did you get a reading on where Shadow is? We need him now more than ever." Knuckles said. Rouge shook her head.

"Not yet. I hope he's okay..."

 _Meanwhile, in the Mystic Jungle..._

Shadow was jumping through the trees, taking out any robots that came his way. He then saw Infinite in his way.

"I've been looking for you, Shadow..." Infinite said, floating in front of him. Shadow didn't flinch.

"Get out of my way, Infinite. I'm after Eggman." Shadow said. Infinite just laughed.

"Ah, I'm afraid I can't let that happen. See, I know that you may be a loner, but it's not like you're against the Resistance, are you? So for that... Well, I'm gonna have to take care of you." Shadow just stayed silent. Before rushing at Infinite, beating and kicking at him. Infinite took a few hits, but blocked the rest, and countered him, punching Shadow, then doing a punch, punch, kick combo, knocking Shadow back. Before Shadow could fall off and into the river, he teleported behind Infinite and knocked him pretty far.

"Agh! Damn you! Shadow, I promise, I'm not leaving a single one of your bones untouched, you are not going to live through this!" Infinite shot the Ruby Cubes at Shadow, and he dodged most of them. He got hit with a couple and started to see things. He dodged all of the Ruby Illusions though, and came back to reality to a pissed Infinite.

"Why... Won't... You... DIE!?" Infinite rushed and clawed Shadow, before spawning clones of himself to beat down on him. Shadow took down quite a few at first, but then got overwhelmed and down on the floor, getting beaten by the clones... Before...

"Chaos... BLAST!" Shadow used his powerful Chaos Blast to knock back all of the clones, including Infinite himself. He grunted, and punched the ground under him. But then started laughing, as the Phantom Ruby recharged and he used a shockwave blast of his own, knocking Shadow back a distance, and making him suffer hallucinations. As Shadow was helpless on the ground, there were sawblades that got ever closer to him. Infinite walked and towered over him.

"Finally... Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog..." As Shadow was about to be executed, Infinite is suddenly shot with laserfire, interrupting Shadow's hallucination.

"TARGET ACQUIRED. ELIMINATING!" It was Omega, who had saved Shadow. He loads Infinite with lasers, and knocks him back, before Infinite blocks the rest.

"Is there no end to these annoying insects?! Haven't I destroyed you already? No matter... It's all going to end, now..." Shadow got up, and charged a Chaos Spear and shot it at Infinite, while Omega shot backup fire, Shadow went on the offense and beat up Infinite, eventually knocking him down on the floor.

"No... Dammit... How could I lose to you again...?!" Infinite got up and flew off to the Eggman Empire base.

 _Meanwhile, back at the Resistance base..._

Rouge was very excited.

"Guys! We found him!"


	7. True Mania

"Guys, we found him!" Rouge said very happily. Knuckles quickly looked over and smiled.

"Yes! Let's go bring in Shadow, and Omega! We'll definitely have more help for our next big mission now. But I think we should lay low. Sonic, you wanna go bring them in?" Sonic nodded, and pulled up his gloves.

"Yeah! I'll be back in a minute!" Sonic dashed out, and into the Mystic Jungle. As he was running though, a few Aero-Chasers came up from behind and flew in front of him. And then they charge their lasers and fire at Sonic. Naturally, he dodged the lasers, quickly stepping to the right, before boosting, and jumping toward one, and kicking it in the head, but then another chaser fired at Sonic, lasering him, but destroying the other robots in the process. He flopped on the wet grass, and was about to be finished by the robot, before laserfire destroys it and guns it down. Omega charged in, and landed with his fist crushing through the robot. Sonic got up, as Shadow teleported next to Omega.

"Looks like you almost got your hide fried, Sonic... What took you?" Sonic snarked, getting up.

"Well, so sorry! I was busy dealing with some Ro-Butt-Nik's dumbots! And you weren't any quicker! You and your Chaos Control!" Sonic grinned, patting Shadow's shoulder. Shadow quickly shrugged it off.

"Come on, Shadow. I gotta take you and Omega back to-" Sonic was interrupted, as the forest was suddenly lit aflame. More Aero-Chasers rushed out of the trees, and fired at the trio.

"Come on guys! We gotta blast outta here!" Sonic pointed deeper into the forest, boosting away. It didn't take long for Shadow and Omega to catch up.

"How long have these robots been pursuing you?" Shadow said, skating next to Sonic. Omega was flying alongside Shadow, looking back and shooting the Aero-Chasers.

"For a little while, right when I started to find you!" Sonic said, before getting lasered and tripping. Sonic was on one knee, and about to be lasered, before Shadow warped and kicked the robot out of the way, while Omega was covering them.

"Lost your footing, faker?" Shadow said. Sonic shook his head and got up, wiping himself off.

"Oh, please! I can do this all day!" He said, before dashing off, Omega, and Shadow close behind. Motobugs were chasing after them now. Sonic knocked into them, and Shadow jumped forward, turned back and used Chaos Spears to take out more robots, before a tree fell down and stopped them in their tracks for a moment. They quickly hopped over, but then someone landed and broke right through the fallen tree. It was Zavok. He was back, and he was angry. Anybody could tell he's a fake, through his glitching, and phasing from reality. Sonic got knocked back, but he caught the grass with his hand, and did a backflip, landing swiftly.

"Enough of all of your foolery, you three are going to be destroyed, right here, right now!" Zavok yelled. Omega turned and put his fist in his other hand.

"SCANS CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE A FAKE. FAKE RELATING TO THE DOCTOR. **DESTROY.** " Omega said, before shooting at Zavok. While Zavok was taking the hits, Sonic rushed over and roundhouse kicked the back of Zavok's head, but then He turned back, knocking the back of his hand into Sonic's face, knocking him back a distance. Then a tree was cut by an Aero-Chaser, and the tree was gonna fall on Sonic, but he rolled out of the way quickly. Meanwhile, Shadow was quickly fighting Zavok, while Omega was covering them by shooting any incoming robots. Sonic quickly rejoined the fight, kicking Zavok in the back, which caught him off guard.

"Agh! Why you little runt! I'm gonna-" Shadow cut off Zavok by kicking him in the head. Sonic jumped up, dodging a punch from Zavok, but then Zavok turned around and launched his fist into Shadow's face, knocking him back a distance, then he grabbed Sonic's leg while he was in the air, and slammed him down. Sonic and Shadow were both knocked down, damaged. Zavok stepped on Sonic's back while he was on the ground, slowly crushing him. He was laughing.

"Hahaha... Goodbye, finally... You puny hedgehog..." But then suddenly, Zavok took a fist to the face from Omega.

"TARGET REACQUIRED TO ZAVOK. BEGINNING ANNIHILATION." Omega then loaded a grenade launcher, shooting one at a time. 'Ker-chunk! Ker-chunk! Ker-chunk!' Zavok knocked one away, then knocked another the other way, then punched right through the third one into Omega, explosions were all around them.

The forest was completely on fire. Trees were falling down, and lighting aflame, and the robot army just wouldn't stop growing. Sonic got an SOS call from Amy.

"Sonic?! Are you okay? The forest is lighting aflame, what's going on?!" There was no response from Sonic.

"S-Sonic?" Eventually Sonic picked up the radio.

"Amy... It's an ambush! Eggman sent his army and Zavok to kick our butts, and they are! I found Shadow and Omega, but they're not doing too good... If I'm not back in an hour... Then... well, see you on the flipside, Amy..." Sonic turned off his radio, and looked up at Zavok, who was battling Omega. Omega had some burn marks and battle damage, but he still functioned completely fine. Omega launched a very strong punch into Zavok's stomach, launching him back. Meanwhile, Shadow was doing fine destroying Eggman's robots. Sonic was about to get up to join Omega to fight Zavok, but Egg Pawns were launched in, and they immediately open fire on Sonic. He cartwheels out of the way of some shots, and rushes over kicking one down, and then jumping up, and kicking a robot into two others, destroying them immediately. Sonic ran over to Shadow.

"Shadow! This forest is a lost cause! Let's grab Omega and get out of here!" Shadow nods, but then they hear yelling and fast and aggressive footsteps.

"AARRGGGHHH!" Zavok was charging right at them, and Sonic jumps up, and places his hands on Zavok's shoulders, and does a frontflip over him, as Zavok runs into a tree. But then when he looks up, he sees Omega had to reboot and got busted up.

"Shadow! You go get Omega! I'll take care of Big Buff Red Guff!" Sonic stretches his legs, as Zavok walks closer, putting his fist in his palm.

"So, do you have a gigantic bee that I can kick your butt on? Or do you just want to take care of this the easy way?" Sonic says, grinning. Zavok growls and lands a punch, that Sonic easily dodged. While behind Zavok, Sonic jumped on his back, punching the back of his head over and over before, jumping up and on his head, and kicking it, doing a backflip off of it. Zavok just got angrier, and turned around about to punch Sonic in the face, before an orange blur comes by knocking him out from the act. Shadow drifts in the dirt. Sonic looks at Shadow, and smiles, giving a thumbs up. Shadow just rolled his eyes, with the slight smirk. Zavok shook his head, but then summoned a robot army, and made them launch an attack on the duo, laughing.

Sonic ran to his left, and Shadow ran to his right, boosting and smashing right through any robots in their way, before circling around Zavok quickly, creating a gust of wind that picked him up. Then Shadow punched him down, and beat on him, punching and kicking him. Zavok looked bruised and beaten, and was about to do a slow and strong punch. Shadow just stood there, smiling. Sonic then jumped up really high, and launched himself into Zavok, knocking Zavok down, and for the count. Sonic casually walked off of Zavok, and he disappeared into pixels. He looked at Shadow.

"Heh, not so bad, Shadow!" Sonic said, smirking. Shadow crossed his arms, and rolled his eyes.

"Let's just get back to your base before this place burns down on top of us. Omega, let's roll." Shadow said. Omega readied his jet boosters, and the two ran on Sonic's lead.

Meanwhile, the base was worried about Sonic and Shadow. The door opened, and only Shadow came in. His eyes were a bit strange though.

"Shadow! Oh, I'm so glad to see you..." Rouge said. Shadow didn't say much.

"Wh...Where's Sonic?" Amy said. Shadow looked down blankly.

"Gone." The entire base looked shocked. Even Gadget, who had been moping around, had his eyes widened.

"Wh-What?! What happened?" Tails said.

"Look at the forest, kid. It's burnt to the ground. Sonic didn't make it out. Heh, I always knew he was just a poser." Tails furrowed his eyebrows a bit at that remark.

"Sh-Shadow? You realize he's... Gone... Why would you just make short notice of him like that?" Rouge said.

Espio looked suspicious.

"Shadow... If you knew Sonic was in the forest... Why would you just leave him to burn? Who started the fire, or sent the robots?" Espio said. Shadow just shrugged it off. Espio was still suspicious.

"Well whatever it is, we have to give him a proper burial. We can't just leave him!" Gadget said. Shadow shook his head.

"No need. His body is already cremated in what used to be the forest. He's gone for good." Everyone just gave a dirty look at Shadow. Shadow's eyes started to look stranger. His body glitched a bit.

"Sh-Shadow?" Rouge said, then turning around.

"Okay guys... Find a Red Star Ring, Shadow isn't acting right-" Then, Shadow charged a Chaos Spear, and launched it straight through Rouge's abdomen. She fell on her knees, and collapsed. Everyone looked horrified. 'Shadow' started to glitch and turn into a mess. Silver got up from his seat, and tried to freeze Shadow in his place. Shadow struggled and broke free, causing Silver to panic and launch him through the wall and out onto the sandy grass. Shadow drifted, and Silver launched out, shooting psychic blades at him. Shadow was able to deflect all of them, and he ran up and did a roundhouse kick to Silver's head. Espio and Vector came out to assist Silver. Espio threw stars at Shadow, and Vector took the offense, punching Shadow. Shadow kneed Vector in the gut, and warped to behind Espio and kicked out his knees, before punching him down. Amy and Gadget came out. Amy swung her hammer and Gadget threw some flames. While everyone was attacking Shadow, he suddenly...

"Chaos... BLAST!"

((Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry for the delay in updates, procrastination takes over. I promise I'll be working on the story more! Just give it time! Have a good Christmas! =D


	8. Trust Loss

What was the entirety of the Resistance's base is now demolished. The Shadow clone was sent to find where they were hiding, and he did, almost annihilating the entire hideout. Everyone groaned in pain from 'Shadow's Chaos Blast, and he was charging a Chaos Spear, about to finish off Silver, before Sonic, Shadow, and Omega found what had happened. Sonic's eyes widened at the sudden destruction, and Shadow looked more concerned than ever. Shadow shook his head, and warped behind his doppelganger, and knocked him out cold with a karate chop, making him turn into Ruby pixels. Silver sat up, beat from the clone.

"Shadow... Is it really you?" Silver said. Shadow nodded, offering a hand to help Silver up. Sonic looked around of what used to be his base.

"Guys! What happened-" Amy already got up, despite her battle damage, and practically tackled Sonic in a tight hug.

"Sonic! I was going to cry, I thought-Shadow said you were-!"

"Easy, Amy... I'm okay... And that Shadow was a faker... Is everyone okay...?" Knuckles had a hand over his eyes, sighing.

"Not... Not Rouge..." Sonic looked over Amy's shoulder, and gasped.

"Oh no..." Gadget, the Chaotix, and soon Sonic and Amy were gathered around Rouge's lifeless body. Charmy looked as if he was going to cry, and Espio crossed his heart.

"Rest your soul, Rouge. You will be avenged." Espio said. But that's when Shadow perked up from talking to Silver outside. He quickly walked to the gathering, and for once, the first time Shadow released his true self. He fell on his knees in front of her body, and held his head. No one's ever seen Shadow like this. Sonic walked closer, trying to comfort him.

"Shadow...? Please don't... D-Don't make this harder for the rest of us... I know how close you-" Sonic was interrupted.

"ZIP IT, HEDGEHOG! You don't understand... This... This isn't the first time this happened... Because I was too slow, too weak... You don't call **_this_** the ultimate lifeform, who lets his closest... Friends... die..." Sonic's eyes shook, and he backed up...

"Let's... Let's leave him alone guys... We need to make a plan of what's next..." Sonic said, as the group left Shadow alone with Rouge, as Omega walked in to supposedly comfort him.

"We'll have to leave soon. We have one last secret base near the Chemical Plant. We'll head there soon, once Shadow and Omega are ready." Knuckles said to the group. Everyone agreed, and talked about their escape plan, before the realization hit Sonic.

"...Where's Tails?" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Sonic.

"He must've ran off when that Shadow Replica came in... I don't know where he'd be..." Knuckles said. Sonic thought for a moment, and then he realized. _The city!_ Tails might be grieving for Classic Sonic there, it's where he died, and Sonic was sure they were close. Sonic stood up.

"I'm heading back to the city, I think that's where Tails would be." Amy walked over to him.

"Please be careful... And be back soon.. I don't know what will happen next if you aren't here..." Then Amy gave him a new radio, since his old one got busted during the escape from the forest. Knuckles then briefed to Sonic before he left.

"We're probably going to be on our way to our base next to the Chemical Plant, we don't have time to stay here and wait for you... Oh, who am I kidding, you never keep us waiting. Meet us there, when you find Tails." Sonic nodded.

"Not a problem, see you then!" He then dashed off to the city, looking around for Tails.

It's very dangerous to be in the city, as Eggman has this territory now, and if anyone's in it for too long, they can be tracked, scanned, and hunted down. Then you're given the option, to surrender to Eggman, or die. Not very good odds. As Sonic looks around, he goes back to the block where Classic Sonic died. Tails might be there with him. And as he thought, he was! Tails was just in the middle of the open, working on some kind of machine next to Classic Sonic. Sonic walked over, and got on one knee next to Tails.

"Tails, you're bonkers, what the heck are you doing in the middle of the open like this?" Tails looked at him, surprisingly cheery looking.

"Sonic! I'm glad you're here! I'm trying to work on this machine, for Sonic-Shoot, er, THIS Sonic.. It's ring-powered, and if it has enough energy, it should be able to revive a being, if the wounds aren't too serious... Which, hopefully Infinite's beatdown wasn't that bad, I should be able to revive little Sonic here!" Sonic smiled a bit.

"That's great, Tails... But uh... We had a casualty while you were gone... Rouge got killed... And Shadow.. He's not too happy about it..." Tails frowned, but didn't look too worried.

"If I can get this to work, then it won't be that way for long.. Now just stay still, other Sonic!" Tails stood up, aiming his machine at the lifeless Classic Sonic, and fired a ray, lifting his body off the ground, but then the ray flickered and let him go.

"Shoot! Might need a little bit more tweaks..." Sonic, waited, but then suddenly the ground shook, and a giant mecha robot guard stomped behind them.

" **STOP! IF YOU WISH TO KEEP YOUR LIVES, THEN YOU WILL OBEY THE GREAT AND POWERFUL DOCTOR EGGMAN!** " Sonic got in front of Tails, guarding him instinctively.

"Dammit! Tails, get out of here! I'll handle this dumbot-OOF!" The giant robot didn't hesitate to side-punch Sonic into a building. Sonic shook his head, and jumped out. As Tails backed away slowly, the robot picked him up by his arms, and dragged him away. Tails kicked and struggled.

"Sonic! H-Help me!" Sonic ran and hopped on a building, and then ran up the side of the robot, beating down on it. It obviously didn't do anything, and the robot just picked him up, and crushed him like a fly, and threw him a long ways. Not killing him, but just keeping him down long enough.

"NOO!" Tails bursted out in tears, and the robot stepped on Tails' machine, destroying it.

"I-I'm so sorry Sonic... I failed you... And now I... I don't want to turn into one of them! I-I'm so sorry! Somebody help me!" But then, out of the blue, and a light blue spinball, did a spindash motion on the robot, sawing into him, and eventually going right through, destroying the robot, dropping Tails. As Tails looked around, a single, blue hedgehog on his knee, in a cool superhero like pose. He looked up and smiled at Tails. Classic Sonic was alive and well.

"Sonic!" Tails ran over to him, crawling out of the debris. Classic Sonic smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"I-I can't believe it, my machine WORKED! Argh... But it was trashed... Hey, lets go find the other Sonic, huh?" Tails ran past Classic Sonic, as he nodded, and ran by his side, looking around. Tails eventually came to a halt, as two more of those huge robots came stomping through. Classic Sonic grinned, as he charged up a spin-dash, attacking one, as another tries to punch Sonic off the robot, he backflips off, and runs circles around them, but then one manages to stomp on him, getting Sonic a concussion. He shook his head, and as he was about to be crushed, a darker shade of a blue blur dashes through Classic's enemy, and stomps through the other. The two mecha assaulters fall, and Classic Sonic gets up to greet his counterpart.

"Tails! Awesome job getting this guy back up! Now, let's bring that machine back and-"

"Err, about that, Sonic... I ah... The machine broke... And there aren't much Crystal Shards I can use to re-make it. Eggman completely abducted whatever resources we had.." Sonic snarks, and sighs.

"Well, don't lose too much hope, Tails! At least you were able to save this guy!" Sonic points to his younger self, as Classic Sonic gives a thumbs up, and a wink. Tails nods.

"We should get to the Chemical Plant. Everybody's waiting for us!"

Meanwhile, Knuckles and what's left of the Resistance are walking their way to the base near the Chemical plant. Knuckles is in the lead, but everybody else is hanging in the back, dragging their feet.

"Oh, come on guys! Look, I know things may seem bad and grim now, but we've still got a chance at coming back! No matter the casualties..." Shadow scoffed at Knuckles, stepping up.

"A chance? What chance? This is our end, Knuckles. They're picking us off, one by one, you either surrender or you die. The Doctor won." Knuckles frowned at Shadow's hopelessness.

"We don't even know where Sonic & Tails are! They went right into the heart of one of Eggman's bases, they could be dead!" Amy cried from the back.

But that's when the ground shook. Knuckles turned to a familiar evil laugh, as Infinite rose up. The Resistance gasped, and readied their weapons, shaking.

"Ahahaha... Oh, look at you little rats... You can't hide in the middle of the open, we've got scouter bots everywhere!" Infinite said, maniacally laughing.

"Zavok, take care of these pests, will you?" A pack of ruby particles created a Phantom Zavok underneath Infinite, as he cracked his knuckles. Knuckles didn't hesitate to charge at Zavok, punching him, and blocking most of his counter-attacks. Gadget and others shot at Infinite above, while Espio threw ninja stars at Zavok. All the while, Infinite was just laughing as the useless laser blasts did nothing to him. Shadow warped up to Infinite's level, using his hover shoes to keep up, before he threw a powerful punch into Infinite's face. Shadow's eyes glowed a dark red, as his body infuriated with rage and hate. Infinite chuckled, looking at Shadow.

"My, my, you're awfully frustrated. Say, where IS Rouge, anyways?" Infinite teased at Shadow, knowing he would break. Shadow yelled and at the speed of light, attacked Infinite. He punched furiously, and quickly, and Infinite managed to dodge every single one. Shadow blinked confused, as Infinite laughed. The Phantom Ruby glowed brighter, as Infinite clenched his fists.

 _"My turn._ " Infinite charged himself up, before throwing punches right into Shadow, Infinite's attacks were strong and fluid, proving to be even stronger than Shadow. Shadow coughed and his eyes widened and centered, his glow fading, before Infinite sent a finishing kick right into the ground where Knuckles was.

"SHADOW!" The Resistance cried. Infinite laughed, as Amy and Charmy covered their mouths in shock. Gadget gritted his teeth, as he reloaded his grappling hook, Zavok put his fist in his palm, looking down at the fallen Knuckles, and picking him up by his skull, before clenching his fist slowly as Knuckles groaned in pain. And then Zavok felt a sharp pain in his back as he let go of Knuckles, before falling down on his front, as Classic Sonic rolled through him, drifting in the dirt. Modern Sonic wasn't far behind as he jumped up and homed in on Infinite, kicking him the back of the head.

"Hey, Infinite! Long time no see!" Sonic backflipped off of him, and Tails spectated with the rest of the Resistance. Infinite turned back to Sonic, and then the Resistance.

"Hmph, not yet, Sonic. See you soon." Infinite then dashed off to the Eggman tower, and Zavok faded away.

"Phew! That was a close one! Everyone okay?" Sonic said with that same hopeful smile on his face. Classic Sonic landed next to him, looking at the petrified group. Amy and some of the others looked confused that Classic Sonic had came back from the dead.

"Whoa! The little Sonic's back! How'd that happen?" Vector asked, looking straight at Classic Sonic.

"Well, Vector, good news! I made a machine that could bring organic lives back from the dead! But right as I saved Sonic here, a mech destroyed my machine, and the parts aren't very common to find..." Shadow, Gadget, and the Resistance stared blankly at Tails. Shadow walked closer to Tails, slowly.

"Fox. You're telling me that instead of bringing the machine back to us, you just stayed in enemy territory, practically WAITING to die? Not only that, but instead of saving a life that mattered to us, you just brought back THIS little runt?" Shadow pointed right at Classic Sonic, as the young blue hedgehog flinched, stepping back. Gadget stepped in, his fists clenched.

"Tails... You KNOW what Fuchsia meant to me... Why would we need two Sonics? For what, so he could just be brought back to wherever he came from? I just-You have NO IDEA what kind of hell I'm going through right now! Fuchsia was my second half, Tails! Now I'm just an empty husk! This entire team is falling apart because of loss, and you had one chance to bring it all back!" Gadget raised his voice, looking down at Tails, as both him, and Classic Sonic slightly shivered in shock.

"Gadget... I-Look! There's still a chance! I know that Eggman probably would've salvaged all the material on the Death Egg... If we can just-"

"The Death Egg? Really! You expect us to get to the DEATH EGG? The Spaceport is locked down tight ever since our last break-in! You might as well send the little one right here, since he's so valuable to you! Go on then, Tails! Just SEND HIM OUT, already!" Tails looked as if he was about to cry, before Modern Sonic stepped in.

"Gadget! That's enough! Look, we all get that some people are upset, but we can send some recon to grab some of the materials that we need, and everyone would be back up, safe and sound!" Sonic said, trying to reassure everyone, but Shadow interrupted him.

"What say do you get in this, hedgehog? You're only defending this crybaby because you've known him the longest. Or are you trying to defend that child version of yourself? Face it, Sonic, all hope is lost." Sonic lost his smile, as his shoulders slugged down. He stepped towards Classic Sonic and Tails.

"Look guys, let's just go-" But Classic Sonic had already dashed off to the Spaceport. Modern Sonic acted fast and dashed after him.


End file.
